The redemption of the believers’ body is the issue of the sealing of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4:30 Paul tells us that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God “unto the day of redemption.” Here the word “unto” indicates that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit resulting in, or issuing in, the redemption of our body. By this we see that the sealing of the Holy Spirit is for the redemption of our body. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit with a view to this redemption.
The sealing of the Spirit is not a once-for-all matter. Rather, the sealing is still taking place. The seal was put in us when we believed in the Lord Jesus, but the sealing has been going on from that time until now. The Holy Spirit is the seal and also the sealing. We were sealed, and we are still being sealed.
Many of us can testify from experience that when we believed in the Lord Jesus, we realized that we had been sealed in our spirit. However, in our mind, emotion, and will there was no sealing. Because the Spirit came into our spirit and sealed us at the time of our regeneration, the Bible says that we were sealed. However, not every part of our being was sealed but only one part, our spirit. However, Ephesians 4:30 says that we were sealed in the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption. This means that the sealing in our spirit is with a view to the redemption of our body. This implies that the sealing is spreading within us. It begins in our spirit, and it is spreading into our mind, emotion, and will. One day even our body will be sealed with the Spirit, for our body will be saturated with the Spirit. Hence, the redemption of our body is the issue of the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
Sealing, dispensing, and transformation are different aspects of one thing. The sealing of the Spirit is a matter of transformation and also a matter of God’s dispensing. On God’s side, the sealing is the dispensing of His element into us. On our side, the sealing is the receiving of the divine element through the divine dispensing to saturate us, to transform us, and to make us His inheritance.
Eventually, the redemption of our body will be for the praise of God’s glory-God expressed in His glory. This is the reason Ephesians 1:14 says that the redemption of the acquired possession is “to the praise of His glory.” God’s glory is God Himself expressed. God will be glorified, expressed, in the New Testament believers. This expression is not visible today, but one day it will be visible. At that time God’s expression through the New Testament believers will call forth the universal praise. Our God will be fully expressed and glorified through us and among us. Then the entire universe will praise His glory. We shall become a corporate body to express God, and that glorification will be praised by the whole universe.
For us to be redeemed in our body is not only to enjoy the full divine sonship but also to have our body of humiliation transfigured and conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. Philippians 3:21a says that Christ “will transfigure the body of our humiliation, conforming it to the body of His glory.” When the Lord Jesus returns, our body will be transfigured, fully redeemed, glorified. When we believed in Him, our spirit was regenerated. During our Christian life our soul is gradually being sanctified and transformed. Then at the Lord’s coming back our body will be transfigured. This transfiguration is the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation. After we have been transfigured we shall be the same as Christ in all three parts of our being.
In 3:21 Paul refers to our body as “the body of our humiliation.” This describes our natural body, made of worthless dust (Gen. 2:7) and damaged by sin, weakness, sickness, and death (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8:11). But one day this body will be transfigured and conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. Christ’s body of glory is His resurrected body, saturated with God’s glory (Luke 24:26) and transcendent over corruption and death (Rom. 6:9).
Christ’s resurrected body is a mystery. On the day of His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples with such a body. Although He had a body that could be seen and touched, He came into a room where the doors had been shut (John 20:19). No one can explain this. We simply believe what the Bible says concerning Christ’s resurrected body. Furthermore, we believe that one day our body will be like His.
In the way of His full salvation, God first regenerates us in our spirit that we may have Him within us as our life. Then He begins to transform us in our soul that He may fill, saturate, and possess our whole being. Thus, we may be transformed into His image to be His expression even while we are living on earth. Then, at His coming back, He will transfigure our body.
Our spirit has been regenerated and our soul may be fully transformed, yet our body remains old. With all its physical weakness and illnesses, it is under the power of death. It is mortal and subject to infirmity and death. Though our body may be quickened by the Spirit who dwells in us (Rom. 8:11), yet it is a mortal body, subject to death and needing to be redeemed. Today, by cooperating with the Spirit in our spirit, we may experience the Lord’s spreading of the divine life into our body to quicken and even to saturate it to a certain degree. Nevertheless, no matter how much our body may be quickened and even saturated by the Spirit, it still requires the Lord’s full redemption. This is the reason we often groan within ourselves (Rom. 8:23). But we praise the Lord that when He comes back, He will transfigure the body of our humiliation. Then “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2) not only in our spirit and in our soul but also in our body. At that time we shall be in His full likeness both inwardly and outwardly, from the center of our being to the circumference, from our innermost spirit to our outermost body. That will be the ultimate consummation of the Lord’s salvation.
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